


What Home Is

by tonikaku



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble Sequence, Fluff, M/M, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-30 02:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13940394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonikaku/pseuds/tonikaku
Summary: Keith and Lance are getting closer over the time they spend together in space, from awkward getting-to-know-each other over sickness and accidental almost-death in outer space to game night bonding, looking for an elusive "home".





	What Home Is

**Author's Note:**

> 10x100 words, yeehaw
> 
> Credit to klanceweek day 1 for the 'home' theme, but I didn't make it in time so I'm not tagging it orz
> 
> SPAG concrit is appreciated! Drabble-related concrit (flow, balance, that sort of thing) is welcome too, thanks!

[1]  
Home is where the heart is, they say, but where is the heart? Is it in blue skies and bluer waves or hot suns and hotter sand? Is it in cool surfaces or jagged edges? Is it in stable, grounding gravity or free, frictionless space?

Or is it in blue eyes and brown hair? In rough hands and quick feet?

Is it in barely-there touches and linked pinkies under the table? In clasped hands and bone-crushing hugs?

Is it in shy smiles and brash grins? In stifled giggles and boisterous laughter?

In another body’s warmth under the blanket at night?

[2]  
“Hunk says you don’t miss Earth”, Lance says in a rare moment of calm.

“It’s not like I have any living relatives there”, Keith says, “but I do miss the sun.”

“Oh yeah, me too! Like when it’s warm enough in the morning to run butt-naked into the ocean-”

Keith splutters. “What?!”

“What, as if you’ve never done that?”

“I’d never even seen an ocean before we landed on that planet a couple months ago, Lance”, Keith says, feeling slightly scandalised.

“You have got to come visit me back home, man, that’s a serious gap in your résumé right there!” 

[3]  
Lance, saddled with a virus, has decided to disregard Coran’s advice of watching horror movies to try and scare it out of his system. Instead, hand on the cold wall, he’s making his way through the castleship’s halls in search of less blood-curdling entertainment.

Keith is outside, using a nearby asteroid field to hone his skills. Lance can feel him whooping excitedly, at home hurtling through narrow paths between unpredictable space rocks. 

His legs give out. Lance sinks to the floor, winces at the cold seeping through his pajamas, and hopes someone will find him before he turns into ice. 

[4]  
Keith is in high spirits: He made it through the asteroid field a couple dozen times with ever better times and not a single scratch on the red lion. It’s fun, forgetting about everything but the task ahead of him; exhilarating. He remembers his first time on a hoverbike, which was pretty cool, too, but doesn’t compare to the vastness and freedom of space

As he approaches his room, his insides start twisting. Something’s wrong. He picks up the pace, running towards the slumped figure next to Lance’s room - shit, Lance, he’s sick, what’s he doing outside -, then crouches down.

[5]  
Keith runs shaking hands through Lance’s sweaty hair. It’s so wet, its usual light brown is dark, and instead of fluffy, it’s matted to his skin. Shit. 

“Hey, Lance, what’re you doing out of bed?”

Lance shivers slightly, but doesn’t show any sign of waking. Keith’s heart lurches into his throat. He puts his helmet back on to radio the others, then he cradles Lance in his arms and carries him back to bed. When he tucks the blanket around him, Lance’s eyes open, blue just shining weakly through his lids. 

“Use”, he starts, coughs, tries again. “Use handcreme, dude.”

[6]  
Keith stays with Lance long into the night. He keeps him hydrated, cools him when he’s overheating, drapes another blanket over him when he’s shivering, and gives in to the urge of lightly stroking his face when he seems uncomfortable. 

The next day, Lance arrives late for lunch, looking more alive, and manages to eat some bites. He smiles at Keith very shortly, a bit shyly, even, but doesn’t rope him into the conversation. Keith is grateful, because the one second Lance’s hand touched his thigh under the table in a wordless “thank you” has his brain scrambling for words.

[7]  
It’s Keith’s turn to be sucked out into space in regular clothes. He tries to alert the others, but like last time, they seem to be occupied by personalised extermination bugs. The countdown is merciless, and there’s nobody to hear his fists against the door.

Whoosh.

This time, there’s nobody opening the door to grab his hand.

Space is cold when you’re in jeans and a t-shirt.

He comes to against the heat of an unfamiliar chest, slightly more familiar fingers clasping his own so hard it hurts, turns his whole body towards Lance and wraps his arms around him.

[8]  
Lance used to think that Keith was a cold person. Holding his almost freeze-dried body - he tries not to think about it, shivers whenever he remembers. Keith was indeed very cold, that time.

He appreciates even more how he suddenly sees him in a different light: Now, he’ll catch Keith smiling at him out of the corner of his eye, and sometimes Keith will realise that he has been caught, and his smile will turn awfully shy. Lance makes sure to smile back, as if to say: “I don’t mind.”

He feels the distance between them grow warmer every day.

[9]  
Keith and Lance end up as a team during game night. Team Punk shares a grin, Allura and Coran a worried look. Lance nudges Keith, whispers a conspiratory “We’ll show them, partner” - to which Keith responds with a giggle, what a day to be alive - and focuses on beating everyone’s asses.

Some alien deity is apparently on their side. When they’re declared “Supreme Rulers of Knoerrsas” after wiping the table with the others, Lance finds himself face to excited face with a flushed Keith laughing at the top of his lungs, high-fiving each other several times. Truly, what a day.

[10]  
Keith wakes up, breathing ragged and laboured, throat on fire from trying to breathe in space. He opens his eyes wide to take in everything - nightstand, blanket, table, clothes, moonlight through the window - to tell himself that he’s safe, the air is good to breathe, he’s okay.

He notices warm hands rubbing up and down his arms and back and vaguely hears a deep voice whisper into his ear a constant stream of “you’re okay, you’re safe, you’re home”. 

When Lance maneuvers him back under the blanket, he presses himself as closely as possible to his warm skin, whispering, “Thanks”.


End file.
